Question.-
What do you think that Madrid closes only the bridges and not seven days in a row as established by the royal decree of the state of alarm?
Answer.-
That we have saved lives by closing the bridges?
Yes, of course.
What is enough?
No. It's a patch on the hull of a sinking ship.
We need an urgent action plan coordinated at the state level and implemented in the Community of Madrid.
Q.-
So you think Isabel Díaz Ayuso has not done the right thing by closing the region only
what the bridges?
R.-
It is a step.
But we have to take the pandemic seriously.
That Merkel and Macron came out this week saying that this second wave is going to be more deadly than the first is a warning (...).
We need a certain sense of state and urgency when taking measures that is not taking place (...).
In the first wave, 50,000 compatriots died and if things are not corrected, another 50,000 could die.
That is why it unnerves me that we are not all focused on solving the situation (...).
I came out two weeks ago saying that the threshold [of infections per 100,000 inhabitants] had to be below 25 and some laughed and others called me crazy (...).
It is important that we take strong action and do it now if we want to save Christmas.
P.-
When you suggest that you do not take the pandemic seriously, are you referring to Ayuso and / or Pedro Sánchez?
R.-
I mean that the PP and the PSOE are doing something that is irresponsible: transferring their partisan struggles to the governments.
They have turned governments into their instruments of confrontation in the middle of the most serious pandemic of the last hundred years (...).
On the one hand, the PP has decided at the national level to remove itself from the contribution of solutions (...) and, on the other, we have a ship, which is Spain, with a captain who only wants the stripes, but not the responsibility that that entails (...).
As a consequence, we have a salad of measures at the regional level that transfers political chaos and uncertainty to public opinion that is unacceptable (...).
This political chaos is killing people.
P.-
Do you think that right now the people of Madrid are clear about what can or cannot be done?
R.-
The political class has not been able to measure up.
Citizens are pissed off and with good reason (...).
The feeling of satiety and disaffection in the citizens is brutal (...).
P.-
Madrid prohibited meetings from 00:00 to 6:00 and two days later the ban was lifted.
You have said that they are going to be banned again, but in Health they deny it ...
R.-
If they finally do not prohibit it, I do not agree (...).
If now for a legal issue we stop doing it, we do a disservice to our coherence and also to the citizens.
One of the sources of contagion are family gatherings.
P.-
Don't you think that much of the citizens' confusion is because the administrations want to impose their story?
R.-
There is an important part of political strategy that we should eliminate during the management of the pandemic (...).
The division causes deaths.
And the transfer of the political confrontation between the PP and PSOE to the governments, too.
It is weakening citizens and making the virus more serious.
P.-
Do you feel neglected and / or unauthorized in the coalition with the PP of which you are part?
R.-
Absolutely.
I am playing the role that the citizens have wanted to give me, which is that of vice president of a government where as Citizens we have a lot of capacity for action and very relevant counseling, but also where we do not have the majority (...).
Ultimately the president has the last word (...).
P.-
But, for example, on important issues, between the application of more forceful confinements, as you requested, and the closure of only the bridges, the criterion of the president is imposed.
R.-
I respect it, but I don't share it.
It is my moral duty to say what I think (...).
I do believe that strong measures must be taken, that we must not play with the false dichotomy of health and economy, because the measures adopted today save lives and jobs (...).
P.-
Will you hold the president responsible if the health situation has not improved at Christmas?
R.-
I'm going to do everything in my power to avoid it.
P.-
But do you think she would be responsible for not doing a longer shutdown now?
R.-
Of course he will have to assume his responsibilities, everyone (...).
I don't have a fight with the president, I'm fighting a virus, period.
What's more, Ayuso is my government partner (...) I want to solve this, because it is so serious that we cannot be in pre-Covid politics.
In Spain, 760 people have died in the last seven days.
Only in Madrid 161 people have died (...).
We cannot afford politicking.
P.-
What does the president argue for you not to take more forceful measures?
R.-
We talk a lot, because they are not easy measures.
Every decision we make affects thousands or millions of people, it is logical that there is a debate (...).
It took us a lot to agree on 155 measures being different parties, but nowhere did it appear that we were going to suffer the worst pandemic in a hundred years or that we had to be aligned or look like an army.
Hence there are discrepancies in some things;
in most no.
P.-
Do you understand that colleagues in the PP government consider that it acts in an "unfair" way?
R.-
Some confuse loyalty with submission and long for times when they had an absolute majority.
And this government is a coalition government formed in equal parts by members of the PP and Cs (...).
We are partners of the Government, we are not subjects of the PP.
P.-
Are you aware that in your party there are those who consider that you only want to set your own profile and that you should be more loyal to Ayuso?
R.-
I don't know of anyone in my party who has said that, either in public or in private.
P.-
We do.
R.-
Well, I don't really know what they mean.
I am loyal to the citizens who have put me here (...).
I'm going to defend my opinion loud and clear, no matter who it is more or less (...)
P.-
With the closures by basic health areas, the accumulated incidence of coronavirus has dropped.
They are effective measures ...
R.-
The approach to basic health zones is helping to lower the curve (...) The state of alarm also helped.
This perimeter closure of Madrid will also help.
For me, the most important thing that has occurred in recent weeks is a change of chip in people's mentality: we have gone from a situation where we thought that this second wave was not going with us to a situation of mental withdrawal (... ).
And we have already managed to lower the curve almost half.
The problem is that we came from the attic of the Empire State Building.
We were in figures of 800 cases of accumulated incidence, an outrage.
We have dropped to 430, which is also outrageous, but an important path has been made (...) What is the appropriate scale?
Below 25. That's the goal.
P.-
Well, the Ministry of Health does not support that this has to be the objective ...
R.-
The EU marks three scenarios: green, orange and red traffic lights.
Below 25 incidence, they consider that you are a green region, with free transit, where you can travel, there is business tourism, shopping tourism ... That is what we need (...).
If we manage to drop below 25 we will have many possibilities to return to normal.
Anything other than that goal is not very ambitious (...).
In Madrid we have been below 25 in June and July.
It is achievable. Q.- Do you consider that a sector of the Government treated Minister Alberto Reyero badly, who ended up resigning?
R.-
I believe that all the directors know the work that Reyero has had at the head of Social Policies, and what I have always seen is the support of the Governing Council for his action and they have all understood the complexity of what he had to do and how difficult which has been (...).
I am very grateful for all the work you have done and I would have loved to have it continued.
P.-
The Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, did publicly spoil some statement ...
R.-
They had some logical discrepancy, but between them there is a cordial personal relationship.
P.-
They have been in government for almost 15 months with weekly public fights.
Can they hold the entire legislature governing together?
R.-
That's the idea and I stick with it.
And the president maintains it.
I believe that this is not the time for early elections or for motions of no confidence (...).
I certainly am on the plane of getting out of this crisis and trying to save lives.
P.-
Do you put your hand on fire because they will end the legislature?
R.-
I would like the legislature to be exhausted and the signed agreements to be fulfilled.
I'm going to try and I know that the president will too.
As much noise as some want to make, I believe that this is a solid and strong government.
P.-
Do you think the president can call early elections?
R.-
I hope not, because it would be irresponsible.
P.-
Are you afraid I will?
R.-
I fear nothing more than on a personal level death and on a political level that people have a bad time.
That's what scares me the most.
That people continue to have a hard time and that we are not able to measure up.
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